3D Printing News and Innovation

Kapture and Shapeways partner to 3D Print Elegant Accessories

Kapture CEO and Co Founder Mike Sarow first pitched me the idea for Kapture, the “always-on audio-recording wristband” down in balmy Orlando 18 months ago, serendipitously at the same conference I met Pete, our CEO. It was collaborative love at first sight! Sarow graciously hosted me in Cincinnati during my Shapeways Roadtrip across America and today, we are proud to announce our accessories partnership with Kapture!

“Kapture and Shapeways share a passion for enabling creative people to customize and make a product their own. When Shapeways released Gold Plated Brass, we had to include this incredible material as an interchangeable microphone grill option for our Kickstarter backers. We love the spirit within the Shapeways community of makers and we believe this is only the beginning of what Kapture and Shapeways can do together,” says Sarow. We couldn’t agree more, and take great pleasure in enabling entrepreneurs like Sarow and his Co Founder Matthew Dooley.

Kapture allows users to talk, tap and share the last 60 seconds of their audio life, so a moment is never missed. It’s always exciting to see Shapies launch Kickstarter campaigns, and even more so when those Shapies are personal friends. Kapture is off to an explosive start! Learn more and check out the custom Shapeways Gold Plated Brass grills on their Kickstarter page.

The Kapture and Shapeways collaboration illustrates one of the best use cases for our services. Accessory inventory is one of the biggest dilemmas facing any hardware company trying to get off the ground, especially in the consumer electronics space. Guessing how many of each color or design consumers will buy months in advance before a release can be frustrating and very expensive. Shapeways completely eliminates this problem by allowing designers to upload as many variations of accessories (and products for that matter) as they see fit and letting the customer decide on their final form factor and aesthetic.

I suspect this partnership is only the tip of the iceberg as we exit the mass manufacturing era and enter that of mass customization. Speaking of, how are we customizing your life?

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8 comments

Now there’s a product that seems fraught with legal issues related to sharing of unauthorized personal recordings. It’s one thing to capture 60 seconds of your life but capturing 60 seconds of another person’s life and quickly sharing it on social media could be problematic. I’m sure the lawyers will work it all out…

Well we didn’t have such an exceptionally developed social network on the internet in 1998. If anything the legal system would be unable to keep up with the rapid dissemination of illegal recordings in today’s world. And while it is true that you could do the same thing with modern cell phones or other miniaturized “spy” equipment this product certainly simplifies the process and makes it more, shall we say, clandestine? Of course in 2013 we also now have the NSA to track who is uploading what and when, although they don’t seem to be too amenable to having their collected information used in the courts.

On the other hand one could argue that it also has applications to promote personal safety. While some nefarious criminal is kidnapping a person wearing it they could cry for help and tap the message to all of their social friends. Maybe adding a taser to the thing could be a future upgrade.

Thank you for your comments! At Shapeways we partner with innovative brands to help bring their product ideas to life. Just as with all technology and wearable devices, it is always most important to be considerate of the humans around you. We’re really excited to see the team at Kapture’s designs become real and understand your concerns in the process. If you have specific product questions regarding the usage or legality of Kapture, please visit their FAQ (at the bottom of their Kickstarter page): http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1483824574/kapture-the-audio-recording-wristband

Thanks Savannah for the partnership and the nice blog. The spirit of being a maker is alive and kicking at Kapture! Can’t wait to grow our offerings. If anyone has any questions you can’t answer, you know where to find me.

Yep. Kickstarter (or rather the projects/startups featured there) never ceases to amaze me.
Hidden audio recorders and similar stuff for teenage pranksters and dirty old men have been
around for ages, and I do not see how shapeways’ brand name could benefit from such an
association.

It’s a dash camcorder for your wrist except it only does audio and not audio and video. Any plans to upgrade this to also record video down the line? Another nice feature would be for it to tell you the time with two taps. If it looks like a watch it should be able to tell time! Will Samsung and Apple to do this with their smart watches or is it protected by patents?

I would rather have it work this way: Always recording, If you need to hear something again such as earlier conversation or something you heard on the radio while driving, you back it up like Tivo does for TV programs.
Broadcasting conversations sounds like trouble to me. But i often want to hear exactly what was said from a conversation up to 30 minutes ago.